Rig for Emergency & Field Communication

Toyota Land Cruiser GX 105 with Off-road trailer rigged for emergency field communications in Kalahari during August 2006! Land Cruiser now fitted with Icom IC706MkIIG, Icom IC-V8000 and Icom IC-A110 together with Codan 9350 HF antenna and two VHF antennas for 2m and VHF aircraft band.

Trailer next to my sleeping quarters early in the evening during the process of pitching my camp.

Electrical panel mounted in trailer for power distribution. It can accept 220V AC from a small generating set (3,5kVA) mounted inside trailer or from normal mains supply if available. The AC power drives through a Phoenix battery charger to charge two Haze 120 Amp hour batteries when only DC power is available. A separate AC & DC panel takes care of driving all the circuits from 5 Amp to 25 Amp for the fridge, radios, external lights etc. A Zantrex Link 10 battery monitor makes sure that I do not drain the batteries and I can monitor Amps / Volts / Amp hours left and percentage battery power left.

The 7,5 meter fibreglass mobile mast erected and fitted with a multi-band inverted V antenna from Australia. I use the Icom AT-180 tuner to make sure the SWR is OK although the antenna is resonant on most mid band HAM frequencies.

Mostly used by me for emergency field communication is the new Icom IC-7000 HF/VHF/UHF radio. I also have various other VHF & HF radios capable of field deployment and carry them along in sturdy foam padded Storm cases. These cases also hold all my test equipment power supply and various hand held radios.